ROB REINER

'Robert "Rob" Reiner' (born March 6, 1945) is an American actor, director, producer, writer, children's advocate and political activist.
As an actor, Reiner first came to national prominence as Archie Bunker's and Edith Baines-Bunker's son-in-law, Michael "Meathead" Stivic, on ''All in the Family'' in a role which earned him two Emmy Awards during the 1970s. As director, the Directors Guild of America recognized him with nominations for his work on ''Stand by Me'', ''When Harry Met Sally...'', and ''A Few Good Men''. He was trained at the UCLA Film School.

Contents

Biography

Early life

Career

Personal life

Political activism

In popular culture

Filmography

Television

References

External links

Biography

Early life

Reiner was born in The Bronx, New York, the son of Estelle (née Lebost), an actress, and Carl Reiner, a comedian, actor, writer, producer, and director.^[1] As a child, Reiner lived in New Rochelle, New York, where his family resided at 48 Bonnie Meadow Road, similar to the fictitious address of 148 Bonnie Meadow Road, as the Petries on ''The Dick Van Dyke Show''. When Reiner was about 13, the family moved to the Los Angeles area, where Reiner attended Beverly Hills High School and the University of California, Los Angeles.

Career

Reiner was the celebrity guest, with his civilian contestant partner, to have had the first successful Winner's Circle win occurred on ''The $10,000 Pyramid'' during its debut week in March of 1973 on CBS, when he successfully used the clue "A doughnut" for "Things With A Hole". Interestingly, when ''Pyramid'' host Dick Clark was playing as a celebrity guest on the syndicated Bill Cullen-hosted ''$25,000 Pyramid'' in 1975, he had trouble with the same exact subject and eventually came up with the same clue Reiner used earlier when time was running out, resulting in a $25,000 win. Meanwhile, Reiner reappeared on ''Pyramid'', but for the weekly Cullen edition during its initial 1974-75 season on just two episodes only.
Reiner became famous playing Michael "Meathead" Stivic, Archie Bunker's liberal son-in-law, on Norman Lear's 1970s sitcom ''All in the Family,'' which was the most-watched television program for five years in the United States (1971–1977). The term "Meathead", referring to Reiner's character Mike Stivic in ''All in the Family'', became a pop culture reference. Indeed, Reiner has stated that "I could win the Nobel Prize and they’d write 'Meathead wins the Nobel Prize.'"^[2] In the 1980s and 1990s, Reiner was best known as a director of successful Hollywood films. Some of these films — such as ''The Princess Bride'', ''Stand By Me'' and ''This Is Spinal Tap''— have achieved cult status. He has stated that the film which will go down as his masterpiece is ''Stand by Me''. The film is also his favorite film of his own work.
Reiner went on to direct other critically and commercially successful films with his own company, Castle Rock, such as ''Misery'', ''A Few Good Men'', and his most commercially successful work - ''When Harry Met Sally...'', which has become a classic romantic comedy. However his career has seen less commercial success in recent years, starting with ''North'', which was critically panned (notoriously by Roger Ebert: "I hated this movie. Hated hated hated hated hated this movie."^[3]). His subsequent films ''Alex & Emma'' and ''Rumor Has It'' have been unsuccessful both critically and commercially. His next feature, The Bucket List is due in December, 2007 and will star Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman as two terminally ill men who escape from a cancer ward and head off on a road trip with a wish list of tasks before they die.
He has guest-starred in a number of movies, mostly in small roles including “Throw Momma From The Train”, “Sleepless in Seattle”, “Bullets Over Broadway” , ”The First Wives Club”, and ''Primary Colors''.

Personal life

Reiner is Jewish.^[4] He was married to actress-director Penny Marshall from 1971 to 1981. Marshall's daughter from a previous marriage, actress Tracy Reiner, co-starred in Marshall's ''A League of Their Own''. Reiner and Marshall divorced in 1979. Reiner married photographer Michele Singer in 1989. In 1997, Reiner and wife Michele founded the I Am Your Child Foundation, now Parents' Action for Children, a non-profit organization promoting early childhood development by producing and distributing celebrity-hosted educational videos for parents.
In 2001, Reiner attended the funeral of Carroll O'Connor, along with Sally Struthers. Though Jean Stapleton had heard of O'Connor's death, she didn't attend the memorial due to a commitment working on stage.

Political activism

In 1998, Reiner chaired the campaign to pass Prop 10, the California Children and Families Initiative, which created First 5 California, a program of early childhood development services, funded by a tax on tobacco products. He served as chairman of First 5 California from 1999 to 2006. Reiner was criticized for campaigning for a proposition (Prop 82) to fund state-run preschools while still chair of the First Five Commission, causing Reiner to resign from his position on March 29, 2006. An audit was conducted and it concluded the commission did not violate state law, and that the state commission had clear legal authority to conduct its public advertising campaigns related to preschool. Proposition 82 failed with 39.1% support.
Active in progressive and liberal politics, Reiner campaigned in Iowa for Democratic Presidential candidate Howard Dean just before the 2004 Iowa caucus, and campaigned extensively for Al Gore in 2000. Reiner was mentioned as a possible candidate to run against California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006, but decided not to run for personal reasons.
He has been a contributing blogger for The Huffington Post since May 2005.^[5] He tries to limit the amount of cigarette smoking in his films,^[6] and is a member of the Social Responsibility Task Force, an organization advocating moderation where social issues (like violence and tobacco use) and the entertainment industry meet.
Reiner is also active in environmental issues, and successfully led the effort to establish California’s Ahmanson Ranch as a state park and wildlife refuge rather than a commercial real estate development. On 7 July 2007, Reiner introduced Spinal Tap at the London Live Earth concert.

In popular culture

Reiner was the subject of a parody in the ''South Park'' episode "Butt Out," which criticized his objection to smoking as hypocritical, because his weight problem was just as big a danger, if not more than smoking. He was also labeled a fascist by Kyle because only he hates smoking, so he tries to force others to think like him.

Filmography

★ ''Fire Sale'' - actor (playing "Russel Fikus") (1977) ★ ''The Jerk'' - Truck Driver (uncredited) (1979) ★ ''This Is Spinal Tap'' - Director, co-star (1984) ★ ''The Sure Thing'' - Director (1985) ★ ''Stand By Me'' - Director (1986) ★ ''The Princess Bride'' - Director (1987) ★ ''When Harry Met Sally...'' - Director (1989) ★ ''Misery'' - Director (1990) ★ ''A Few Good Men'' - Director (1992) ★ ''Sleepless in Seattle'' - Jay (1993)

★ ''North'' - Director (1994) ★ ''The American President'' - Director (1995) ★ ''Ghosts of Mississippi'' - Director (1996) ★ ''The Story of Us'' - Director, actor (playing "Stan") (1999) ★ ''EdTV'' - actor (playing "Whitaker") (1999) ★ ''Alex & Emma'' - Director with a role as book publisher (2003) ★ '' - cameo as Himself (2003) ★ ''Rumor Has It'' - Director (2005) ★ ''The Bucket List'' - Director (2007)

Television

★ ''The Partridge Family'' - Snake (1971)

★ ''All in the Family'' - Michael Stivic (1971-1978)

★ ''The $10,000 Pyramid'' - Guest as himself on debut week (1973)

★ ''Happy Days'' - Cowrote the first episode (1974)

★ ''Likely Stories, Vol. 1'' - Director (1981)

★ ''Morton & Hayes'' - Narrator (1991)

★ ''The Larry Sanders Show'' - Cameo playing himself in several episodes including Doubt Of The Benefit

★ ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'' - Cameo in Season 2, Episode 5 (2001)

★ ''Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip'' - Guest Starred as Himself (2006)

References

1. http://www.filmreference.com/film/74/Rob-Reiner.html
2. http://www.yehey.com/entertainment/celebs/article.aspx?id=106489
3. North Ebert, Roger
4. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/5289328.stm
5. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rob-reiner/
6. http://www.dga.org/news/v29_2/craft_smkg_704.php3

External links

★

★ Rob Reiner's biography, awards and milestones, from Hollywood.com